Rock
KATE VOEGELE - On Top of the World
By Michael Montroy |
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 Kate Voegele is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter, musician and actress from Bay Village, Ohio, whose first album, Don’t Look Away, debuted in the Top 10 on iTunes Album Chart back in 2007. Her highly anticipated sophomore album, A Fine Mess, hit stores on May 19, and the talented songstress has been busy promoting the album with a summer tour that stops in Los Angeles June 5 at the El Rey Theatre. Before the concert, fans can meet Voegele and see her perform live and acoustic at the Borders in Hollywood.
The gregarious beauty has come a long way since she started singing in her church choir at age 10. In addition to her successful singing career, Voegele has a recurring guest spot on the popular CW television series “One Tree Hill” as singer-songwriter Mia Catalano, which allows Voegele to perform her own original songs. Although the young lady’s current focus is on her album and the tour to support it, she admitted, “I’d like to pursue more acting roles in the future.” Aside from her desire to act, it’s her voice that has carried Voegele to stardom.
“I’ve really been singing since I was a little kid,” stated Voegele. “But I really started taking it seriously and thought about writing my own songs when I was 15. I was a freshman in high school and my dad taught me to play guitar. My dad was the one who encouraged me to start [singing], and he took my demo tapes to the radio station and they started playing my songs. That’s how it all started.”
However, Voegele doesn’t credit everything to her dad.
“My mom loved Carole King,” she said. “As a result, I listened to her all the time and even went to her concert with my mom. That was the moment I decided I wanted to be onstage. It seemed like such a special place.”
It indeed has become a special place for the singer, and it sounds like she’s enjoying her current tour as much as her fans.
 “The thing I love most about touring is the connection that you feel with the fans when you're onstage,” she said. “There's something so cool about bringing this music right to the people who are inspired by it and playing it live. Putting it together and having it sound amazing on the record is one thing. But then, being able to get onstage and recreate that emotion, and throw something extra into it and make it raw because it's in real time and they're watching you do it is such a cool experience. I live to make music that people feel like they can take something away from. After the show, if someone comes up to me and says, ‘Wow, your music has really inspired me,’ or ‘It really helped me through something,’ well, that's the coolest part of it all. And seeing [my] fans sing my lyrics is completely awesome.”
Touring isn’t all glamour and glitz, though.
“It can be hard because I live on a tour bus with nine boys, so it definitely can feel like a camp-out,” Voegele stated. “It's not glam, that's for sure. But I'm thrilled; I love it. It works for me. It doesn't take much to please me. But, as the only girl, it can be a little rough sometimes. All the boys are like, ‘Yeah, man, whatever. I haven't showered in two days. It's cool.’ And, I'm like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I'm very much a girly girl, even though I'm a guy's girl as well, so it's an adjustment. But at the end of the day, it's so much fun. Although one time, this one fan caught up to the bus and started licking it. Now really, I found that to be a bit too much. I mean, you can be a fan without licking the bus. So I hope when I arrive in Los Angeles, my bus escapes without being licked. The whole thing is just gross and dirty.”
Voegele is looking forward to playing her 80-minute set at the El Rey, which includes 16 of her songs. The majority of the tracks will be from A Fine Mess, which is a special recording for her.
“It's so much more current and, obviously, more grown-up because I'm more grown-up,” Voegele explained. “It's a little edgier, and it's a little bit more vulnerable and honest. I think my writing in high school was a bit more mysterious. I tried to hide a little bit of what I was trying to say in metaphors or stories. Now, I feel like I'm a bit more cut-and-dry about what I'm experiencing because I'm not as afraid to tell people what's going on. In high school, I didn't want the kid next to me in math class to know I was writing a song about him. So, both [albums] have their own things about them that are very me and very representative of who I am, but this new record is just fresh. It's an evolution, for sure. And it’s an evolution to perform these songs in front of people. I am enjoying playing ’99 Times’ (Voegele’s second single off A Fine Mess) in front of people because it’s been so well-received wherever we perform. It’s a fun, driving rock song, and the energy I get from the audience is so awesome. I even recorded a video for YouTube to show everyone how I play the song.”
 The talented performer said she has found inspiration in many places, including the connection she has with her fans.
“Inspiration, for me, comes from pretty much anywhere and, most often, the most unexpected places,” she said. “What's cool about this second record is that most people have so much pressure on them for the second record and they take a couple months somewhere to write it, but I kind of accidentally wrote this record on the road over the last year and a half [while] promoting my first record for the many people who came to listen to it. I was so busy and my life was so crazy, but I was constantly meeting new people and traveling to new places: I was working on a TV set for the first time; I was taking online courses in school, while I was also playing gigs every night…I was super busy, but the inspiring thing to me is everyday life and the things that went on throughout the course of having that busy, nonstop existence. I was so excited when it came time to make this record, because it had kind of already written itself, just from all the different factors of having a crazy, busy life that were inspiring to me. The fans provided a connection for me that I placed into my music because of the inspiration I found in them.”
Voegele’s Los Angeles fans can witness that inspiration up close when they meet her at Borders before her El Rey concert performance.
“I love to meet my fans and give them back something because they have given me so very, very much,” Voegele concluded. “I would like to tell them how much I appreciate them and how awesome they are.”
Kate Voegele will be appearing at the Borders on 1501 Vine St. in Hollywood on Fri., June 5 at 5:30 p.m. Catch her Lift Me Up tour at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles later that night. Show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are just $15. Visit Ticketmaster.com for more details.
For more information on Kate Voegele, visit her official Web site.
Kate Voegele's A Fine Mess is now available in stores everywhere.
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